Thomas Wictor

Archive for the ‘Mom’ Category

Hell is other people. In cars.

I used to dread vacations when Dad was in charge. His idea of taking time off as a family was to pile into the car at the crack of dawn, drive until lunch, eat, and then drive until sunset. And we couldn’t talk. As a teenager I discovored Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous quote “Hell is other…

 

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A nightmare, some help, and a flower

Last night I had terrible dream. I don’t know why it was so awful. Since my bad dreams linger, I was sure that the whole day was ruined. But I appear to have gotten some help. In the nightmare I tried to call my mother on the phone. The need to connect with her was…

 

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Your fate is to have free will

Today I found an artifact that had gone missing. I’d heard about it for years, but I’d never laid eyes on it. Now I’ve examined and touched it. Part of me had wondered if it really existed. Does it prove anything? Yes. It proves that our fate is to have free will. I broach the…

 

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Remembering a protector

Currently I’m doing research for my next novel, constructing a life that never was. Or may have been. Who knows? Part of the novel I’m going to write takes place in Tyler, Texas, where I lived from 1972 to 1975. Even so, everything in the book is false. I made it all up. It’s just…

 

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Count me out of your brave new world

A happy British oncologist says that expensive cancer drugs should be withheld from the elderly and given to the young. Dr. Karol Sikora (pronounced “sick aura”) is worried about the costs. Well, count me out of the you-live, you-die lottery. If it comes down to “justifying expenses,” as the doctor says, then I’ll cheerfully give…

 

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On being a solo flier

Today I thought I’d write a post on being a solo flier, Tim’s term for what he and I are. I wasn’t sure if I’d write it or what I’d say. Then I saw this video from Saturday Night Live. Like so many of SNL’s routines, it goes on too long, but the message is…

 

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I’ve been granted permission

Don’t ask me how I know this, but I know it exactly the way I recognized and remembered the Cardinal Ghost when I met her on November 6, 1987. I’ve been granted permission to write my next novel. This is good news, because the subject matter is going to rattle a lot of cages. But…

 

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Things I never considered, part 80 trillion

I just got an e-mail that prompts me to post about something I never considered. It was a long message full of instructions on how I should change the way I write and live. I’ll address just one point because in our current culture, the classes are pitted against each other, and I don’t want…

 

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Dragonflies and tarantula hawks

My friend the Father Who Dances asked me to please keep writing about what I consider possible signs and patterns indicating that all is well. Therefore, here’s a post about dragonflies and tarantula hawks. This is for you, Father. The last two weeks have been very hard on Tim and me. There’s no specific reason….

 

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Why there’s no Website memorial to my mother

Someone asked me why there’s no Website memorial to my mother. The answer is that it’s too soon. Mom and Dad were both diagnosed with cancer on January 16, 2013. Dad’s death was a blitz attack that ended on February 23, 2013. Mom’s death was a siege that lasted six months. For more than five…

 

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